Title: Christ was tempted and tested and you are forgiven!
Text: Luke 4:1-13
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13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Temptation lulls you and me and sin results and we all fall victim and give in at times to it. But thankfully Christ Jesus didn’t give in and as a result we have that blessed Amazing Grace of life eternal in his name.
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
Sin and temptation we all know it too well. Jesus knew temptation too, yet was without sin.
You might think well He’s God, so He had His divine God-ness on his side. He’s all-powerful, all-knowing, and omnipresent. But it wasn’t the God nature of the God/man that was being tempted. It was the human nature of the God/man that was put to the test.
The truth is that at the incarnation God and man became one in Jesus Christ. He is fully God and fully man. Not part God and part man - or God and man mixed together into this one Jesus.
4 … And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. (Luke 4:1-2)
When we speak of Jesus we need to speak of His humanity in real terms. We need to speak of things that are part of His human nature. Things like time, temptation, and hunger for example … all things we can all relate to.
Over these past 40 days I've been tempted many times as have you with unfortunately sin being the result.
I've done and said things that I shouldn't and not done things that I should. Like you, I fall short every day.
Thank God, I eat … and I eat well, because I've never experienced true hunger, like the type of hunger that Jesus must have felt after 40 days being tempted in the wilderness. This was no little stomach growl; this was hunger that you and I can’t even imagine.
Think of not eating since the end of January and you’d still have a week to go!
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” Luke 4:3-4
The truth is though, that sin is not just thought, word and deed.
It is not overcome by just trying harder not to sin.
It is in fact who we are.
Sin is what we are born in.
Now, this is not to excuse it, but to understand our human nature.
You will fail and you will sin. At times it is blatant and at times you are unaware. Sin permeates our very being and that is why Satan so hounds you and me. Temping you to fall away. Tempting you to give in. Tempting you with the bad and the good.
The sweet flavor of the Paczki was on our lips last week. It’s not always gloom and doom. The taste of sin can be very sweet as well. We forget the 400 calories so, we give in.
“Oh, I’ll only eat half.” we say … but soon the other half is gone too!
My friend used to tease his sister,
“A moment on the lips forever on the hips!’
The devil knows that when presented with a little sin it will lead to a bigger sin and the bigger the sin the guiltier you and I will feel. You will feel shame, and at times guilt for your actions, even an unkind word or a word misplaced can cause hurt. Or worse, you won’t care.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
Satan here uses the most subtle of temptations; “Command this stone to become bread.” He simply desires Christ, to abuse the power which He possessed as God’s Son for the gratification of the desires of the body.
Jesus answers Satan’s temptation with the word of God:
4 … “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.”
Quoting Deut. 8:3:
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deut. 8:3
God’s provision of Mana humbled the Israelites who quickly found that they could not provide for themselves. Instead, they had to trust in God for their daily bread.
Lutheran study Bible Pg 291 Study Note
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
We ask of the Lord in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, which includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body; because Christ wants us to realize that our entire life … and that of everyone else depends of God.
Question/ Answer 219 Luther’s Small Catechism
But again, the temptation of the Devil continues:
“To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
And Jesus answers:
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
This time Jesus brings God’s word to bear in Deut. 6:13
13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. Deut. 6:13
What does this mean - The Catechism asks?
We should fear, love and trust God above all things. Luther gives answer to the First Commandment. You shall have no other gods.
Finally, Satan:
9 … took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
11 and “‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Quoting Deut. 6:16
16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. Deut. 6:16
In the close of the commandments God says:
“I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Ex. 20:5–6
13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
When will the opportune time come again for you or me?
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Cor 10:13
Christ is the one who conquered sin, death and Devil for you. He took all the Devil could give and though tempted was without sin. Christ gives this peace to you and me through the working of the Holy Spirit so that his righteousness is yours and your sin has been laid on him at the cross.
In the face of temptation God provides a way out in Christ and by his Spirit so that we can stand and if we fall, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous one, to whom we can turn, repent of our sin, and be forgiven in his name!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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